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Slovenia

DanubeHeat helps small and medium enterprises, research and educational institutions, and public agencies draft EU funding applications. Financially supported by the German education ministry and coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE based in Freiburg, Germany, it consists of a network of thirteen SMEs, research and educational organisations, and municipal administrations. They are from various countries along the Danube River, such as Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Moldavia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

The Ministry of Infrastructure launched a grant scheme for renewable sources in district heating in June 2017. You can apply for a subsidy of up to 35 % of the investment costs if you are a large company, 45 % if you are medium size and 55 % if you fall into the category of small and micro. CHP projects will receive an additional 10 %.

District heating networks supplied by renewable energy sources (RES) are widely recognised today as one of the most effective ways to decarbonise the heating sector. The EU’s CoolHeating project has been supporting the implementation of small, modular renewable heating and cooling grids for towns in southeastern Europe by transferring knowledge from leading countries such as Austria, Denmark and Germany to newcomers, for example, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. It has also led to the publication of a handbook – Small modular renewable heating and cooling grids – available in seven languages (see the attached PDFs). Solarthermalworld.org talked to Rok Sunko (see photo) from one of the project partners, Skupina Fabrika about current developments and the outlook of RES district heating in Slovenia. The company is a Slovenian-based R&D business focusing on renewables, IT solutions and branding.

At the end of February, the Slovenian subsidy scheme restarted with a new call for applications. Eco Sklad, the Slovenian Environmental Public Fund, has been promoting renewable energies through non-repayable subsidies (grants) and low-interest (soft) loans since 2008. Each year, the scheme supports solar thermal systems, as well as wood boilers and efficiency measures in passive houses until its annual budget runs out. This budget was spent fairly quickly last year. “The budget of EUR 20 million had already been spent in August 2013 and no more applications were possible,” Anton Jančič, Director of Slovenian collector manufacturer Lentherminvest, says. “It is hard to cope with the interruption of 6 months, because demand drops to almost zero when there are no subsidies available.” The chart shows the collector area subsidised each year. In total, Eco Sklad supported the installation of 66,896 m² of collector area over the last six years.

One of the organisations which have had experiences with RES leases over many years is the Austrian UniCredit Leasing. Josef Robert Straninger, Country Coordinator of the Competence Center Renewable Energies at UniCredit Leasing, explained at the SMEThermal conference in Berlin what steps are necessary to ensure the successful financing of large-scale projects (see the attached presentation). After the conference, solarthermalworld.org asked the expert about what he thought needed to be done and what he believed was important when financing a large-scale solar thermal plant in particular.
Photo: Stephanie Banse

On 28 September 2012, solar heating experts, planners, and potential customers met in Breadstrup, Denmark, for a workshop on solar district heating and a tour around the Braedstrup district heating plant (see photo). The conference with the title “Become Part of a Danish Success Story” took place in the framework of the EU project SDHplus. There had also been a project meeting one day before the conference. Most of this meeting had been devoted to discussing business models for green heat. The options ranged from collaborations (system owned by the customer as has been the case with most Danish plants) to new models, for example, which feed solar heat from the customers’ roof back into the grid.
Photo: Eva Augsten

This presentation was given by Riccardo Battisti of Ambiente Italia at the joint 2012 Annual Conference of Euroheat & Power and the Renewable Heating & Cooling European Technology Platform. Battisti gives a sprawling assessment of current developments in Solar District Heating across Europe, while looking to the future to suggest how further progress can be made.

Just after the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) project SDHtake-off will have ended in June 2012, there will be a follow-up project called SDHplus. Six new countries will join it: Spain, France, Lithuania, Croatia, Poland and Slovenia. Experienced partners from the former SDHtake-off project will help them promote solar district heating by launching awareness-raising campaigns and assessing the potential of their heat supply network. SDHplus comes with a budget of EUR 1.8 million from the IEE fund and will run over three years.

With the expansion to the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Sonnenkraft’s network of sales offices now spans across nine countries. When adding the company’s partnerships in other markets, the manufacturer is among the solar thermal businesses with the most extensive market coverage across Europe. Solarthermalworld.org spoke to Magnus Wallin (left), who has been Director of new and emerging markets in Sonnenkraft since 2008, and Torben Sørensen (right), CEO of SolarCAP since 2010 (the Danish holding company of Sonnenkraft – among other companies) who came from a position as CEO of Faber and Benthin Group (subsidiaries of VKR Holding), about the market potential in different European countries and the company’s future growth strategy. Photos: Sonnenkraft

After running for 28 months, the IEE So-Pro project to develop and promote solar process heat ended in September 2011. Project Leader Christiane Egger was able to present a successful programme at the Estec 2011 in Marseilles: More than 90 energy screenings in various industrial companies, about 160 persons trained, 990 participants of round-table events and conferences, 21 publications in 5 languages, 7 pilot projects in operation and about 10 in the pipeline. For the complete interview with Christiane Egger, click here.